Connection or distributing device for electrical installation equipment

ABSTRACT

A connection device or distribution equipment for electrical installation equipment, which can be built into installation equipment, preferably a household distribution box, in which the electrical connection between two bus bars ( 21, 31 ) built into a household distribution box ( 10 ) is produced by an electrical line connector ( 40 ) which runs in the interspace between the two base housings ( 20, 30 ) containing the bus bars ( 21, 31 ) and the back wall ( 11 ) of the household distribution box ( 10 ). Connection contact pieces ( 42   a   , 42   b   , 42   c ) are provided at both ends of the line connector ( 40 ), and can be brought into engagement by vertical introduction into the plug sockets ( 13 ) located on the upper edges ( 23, 33 ) of the base housings ( 20, 30 ), whereby the electrical contact is produced between the first bus bar ( 21 ) and the second bus bar ( 31 ).

The invention relates to a connection or distribution device which canbe built into an installation equipment, preferably a householddistribution box, for electrical equipment according to the preamble ofclaim 1.

Automatic cutouts, fault current cutouts, energy modules or the like aretermed electrical installation equipment. The company ABB Stotz-KontaktGmbH produces and sells such connection and distribution devices underthe product name “System Connect”. These are for example described inthe product catalog “Low voltage material” of ABB Stotz-Kontakt/Striebel& John Vertriebsgesellschaft mbH of the year 2000. In this, in householddistribution boxes, the bus bars are accommodated in a basic housing, onwhich a standard profile bar, preferably a cap profile bar, isinstalled, which acts to receive the electrical installation equipmentand conducts the supplied current by means of energy modules via the busbars to the individual electrical installation equipment. In particular,such systems are known in which more than one such basic housing isinstalled in a household distribution box. The current is then passed onfrom one bus bar to the next by means of line connectors. In the knownSystem Connect, the connection of the bus bars takes place with plugcontacts located at the narrow or end sides of the base housing, intowhich the line connectors are plugged in the horizontal direction. Thetotal construction width of the base housing is increased, since theline connector is passed along laterally near the base housing.Furthermore a subsequent building-in or exchange of the line connectorin finished, mounted distribution boxes is not possible because of thespace relationships with this lateral placement.

The invention has as its object to provide a connection or distributiondevice for installation equipments of the kind mentioned at thebeginning, in which the disadvantages of the known devices are remedied.

This object is attained according to the invention by the characterizingfeatures of claim 1.

According to the invention, the line connector runs in the interspacebetween the base housing and back wall of the household distributionbox. Connecting contact pieces are provided at both ends of the lineconnector, and counter contact pieces are located at suitable places onthe bus bar, and can be brought into engagement with the connectingcontact pieces of the line connector.

The line connector can then be formed as a phase rail block with one ormore phase rails, mutually insulated and arranged mutually parallel intheir length direction.

The advantage of this arrangement is that the built-in width of the basehousing in the household distribution box is now no longer enlarged bythe line connectors.

In a particularly advantageous embodiment of the invention, the countercontact pieces provided on the bus bar are designed as plug socketsinstalled on the upper edge of the base housing. The introduction of theconnecting pieces into the counter contact pieces then advantageouslytakes place in the vertical direction.

According to a further embodiment of the invention, each phase rail hasL-form shapes at its upper and lower ends, and their free legs act asconnection contact pieces, lie in a common line parallel to the lengthextension of the phase rail, and point in the same direction. The fixedlegs of the L-form shapes run at right angles to the length extension ofthe phase rail.

The effect of this embodiment is that the connecting plane of the lineconnectors runs offset relative to the plug plane of the connectioncontact pieces. This makes possible a particularly simple and alsosubsequent building-in or exchange of the line connectors in finished,mounted household distribution boxes.

So that too high a plug force does not have to be used on plugging theconnection contact pieces into the plug sockets, according to a furtheradvantageous embodiment of the invention the free end edges of theconnection pieces are provided with leading-in bevels. Mounting of theconnection and distribution device is thereby considerably facilitated.

Further advantageous embodiments and improvements of the invention areto be gathered from the further dependent claims.

The invention, and also further advantageous embodiments andimprovements, of the invention, are explained and described in detailusing the drawings, in which a few embodiment examples of the inventionare shown.

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a household distribution box withbuilt-in distribution device,

FIG. 2 shows a front view of an embodiment of the line connectoraccording to the invention,

FIG. 3 shows a side view of the line connector according to section lineIII in FIG. 2,

FIG. 4 shows a side view of a further design form of the line connector.

FIG. 1 is referred to. This shows a perspective view of a householddistribution box 10 with built-in distribution device, consisting of afirst base housing 20, a second base housing 30, and an electrical lineconnector 40. The household distribution box 10 has a back wall 11; itis open on the front side opposite the back wall 11. A mounting frame 14is set in the rearward region in the household distribution box 10, andthe first and second base housings 20 and 30 are fastened thereto, atright angles to the length direction of the household distribution box10.

A first bus bar 21 is installed in the lower portion of the first basehousing 20, and has electrical contacts 12 for receiving the contactpieces of the installation equipment. A first cap profile rail 22 isinstalled in the middle region of the first base housing 20 and acts toreceive the electrical installation equipment. In the upper portion ofthe side surface of the first base housing remote from the back wall 11,roof-shaped, conically formed shapes 15 and conical recesses 16therebetween are installed, in which corresponding projections in theelectrical installation equipment can engage and by means of which theelectrical installation equipments are guided. Plug sockets 13 areprovided on the upper narrow side 23 of the first base housing 20, andcan be brought into engagement with the three connection contact pieces42 a, 42 b and 42 c of the electrical line connector 40 can be broughtinto engagement.

The second base housing 30 is constructed identically to the first basehousing; correspondingly, the reference numerals 31 denote the secondbus bar, 32 the second cap profile rail, 33 the upper narrow side of thesecond base housing. Likewise, three plug sockets 13 are provided at theupper narrow side 33 of the second base housing 30. The second basehousing 30 is installed in the household distribution box 10 underneaththe first base housing 20.

The electrical line connector 40, as shown in FIG. 1, is installed inthe interspace between the two base housings 20 and 30 and the back wall11 of the household distribution box 10. It consists of a phase railblock 43 which has at its upper and lower ends respectively threemutually electrically insulated L-form shapes 44, whose free legs 45acting as connection contact pieces are located in a common lineparallel to the length extension of the phase rail block 43 and point inthe same direction, in contrast to which the fixed legs 46 run at rightangles to the length extension of the phase rail block. The introductionof the connection contact pieces 42 a, 42 b and 42 c into the plugsockets 13 takes place in the vertical direction is given by thedirection arrow in FIG. 1. It is of particular advantage that theelectrical line connector 40, also after completed premounting of thehousehold distribution box 10, i.e., after the two base housings 20 and30 have been fastened to the mounting frame 14, can still be inserted.For this, it is brought into a position such that the upper end of theline connector 40 is located a little under the lower edge of the firstbase housing 30 then tilted slightly toward the back wall 11 andintroduced upward from below into the interspace between the back wall11 and the base housings 30 and 40, so that the L-form shapes 44 at theupper end slide through behind the first base housing 30 and the L-formshapes formed at the lower end are guided along in front of the secondbase housing 40.

A preferred embodiment of the electrical line connector 40 is describedin detail in FIG. 2. It is designed as a phase rail block 43 with threemutually insulated phase rails 41 a, 41 b and 41 c, arranged mutuallyparallel in their length direction. The phase rails can, in aparticularly advantageous embodiment, be designed as flat bandconductors. The lower free end edges of the connection contact pieces 42a, 42 b and 42 c are provided with insertion bevels 48, so thatintroduction into the plug sockets 13 is facilitated. So that there is asecure electrical separation the connection contacts 42 a, 42 b and 42 care again mutually insulated by releases 47.

FIG. 3 shows a side view of the line connector 40 according to the arrowdirection III. The free leg 45 of the L-form shapes 44 installed aboveand below on the phase rail, and thus also the connection contact pieces42 a, 42 b and 42 c of the phase rail block, lie in a common plane,parallel to the longitudinal extension of the phase rails 41 a, 41 b, 41c.

A further embodiment of the line connector 40 is shown in a side view inFIG. 4. Here the connection contact pieces 42 a, 42 b and 42 c belongingto the different phase rails 41 a, 41 b and 41 c are arranged mutuallyoffset in a direction at right angles to the length extension of thephase rail block 43. In this embodiment, the plug sockets 13 are thenalso arranged on the upper offset narrow side 23 of the base housing 20in corresponding planes parallel to the back wall 11 of the householddistribution box 10, so that the electrical contacting occurs byvertical introduction of the contact pieces 42 a, 42 b and 42 c into theplug sockets 13. The introduction of the line connector 40 into theinterspace between the back wall 11 and the first and second basehousings 30 and 40 after completed pre-mounting of the housingdistribution box 10 takes place in the manner described above.

1. A distubution device which can be built into a household distributionbox for receiving electrical installation equiptments, comprising: afirst base housing in which at least one first bus bar is accommodatedand on which a first profile assembly rail is installed, wherein theelectrical installation equipments can be latched to the first profileassembly rail; and at least one second base housing which lies in aplane parallel to a back wall of the household distribution box under orover the first base housing, in which at least a second bus bar isaccommodated and on which a second profile assembly rail is installed,wherein the electrical installation equipments can be latched to thesecond profile assembly rail; and at least one electrical line connectorwith which the at least one first bus bar and the at least one secondbus bar can be electrically connected, wherein the line connector isarranged in an interspace between a base housing and the back wall ofthe household distribution box; wherein connection contact pieces areprovided at both ends of the line connector; and wherein counter contactpieces are provided on a bus bar, and cooperate with the connectioncontact pieces of the line connector.
 2. The device according to claim1, wherein the line connector is constituted as a phase rail block withone or more mutually insulated phase rails arranged mutually parallel inits length extension direction.
 3. The device according to claim 2,wherein the counter contact pieces provided on the bus bar are designedas plug sockets installed on the upper edge of the bus bar.
 4. Thedevice according to claim 3, wherein each phase rail has L-form shapesat its upper and lower ends, their free legs acting as connectingcontacts lying in a common line parallel to a length extension of thephase rail, and their fixed legs run at right angles to the phase rail.5. The device according to claim 4, wherein the connection contactpieces of all phase rails are mutually offset and lie in a common planeparallel to the length extension of the phase rail.
 6. The deviceaccording to claim 4, wherein the connection contact pieces belonging todifferent phase rails are arranged mutually offset in a direction atright angles to the length extension of the phase rail.
 7. The deviceaccording to claim 4, wherein the connection contact pieces arevertically introduced.
 8. The device according to claim 1, wherein freeend edges of the connection contact pieces are provided withintroduction bevels for the purpose of easier introduction into thecounter contact pieces.
 9. The device according to claim 1, wherein theconnection contact pieces are mutually spaced by releases to secureelectrical separations.
 10. The device according to claim 2, wherein thephase rails are formed as flat band conductors.
 11. The device asclaimed in claim 1, wherein the electrical installation equipments arechosen from a group consisting of an automatic cutout, a fault currentcutout, and an energy module.
 12. The device as claimed in claim 1,wherein the distribution device is either a connection device or adistribution equipment for electrical installation equipments.
 13. Thedevice as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first and second profileassembly rails are each a cap profile rail.
 14. The device as claimed inclaim 1, the installation equipments can be brought into electricalcontact with an assembly rail when snapped on to the first or the secondbus bar.